Word: pentagon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...once, the logic of the Soviet position was difficult to refute. The politics, however, was more complicated. Pentagon planners were uneasy with the prospect that SALT II?which was supposed to restrain strategic nuclear arms ?might end up, willy-nilly, restricting the development and deployment of some conventionally armed tactical weapons as well. West European strategists and politicians were even more concerned. The West Germans, banned by international agreement from having nuclear weapons, were particularly anxious to have access some day to conventionally armed, ground-launched cruise missiles ? latterday buzz bombs. Throughout SALT
...first time with Vance a number of unresolved issues that had previously been considered secondary and had been dealt with exclusively by the permanent delegations, most notably cruise missiles. The Russians wanted, among other things, a ban on multiple-warhead cruise missiles?an exotic drone that the Pentagon had no intention of deploying during the treaty period but wanted to be free to test...
Turns out that the Pentagon had the same idea. Several months ago, the Department of Defense had scheduled an early April meeting of some of its officers at the sprawling Hershey convention center. But since the situation created by Three Mile Island was, ahem, "so uncertain," as one source put it, the brass decided to beat a strategic retreat. They rescheduled their meeting at Ocean City, Md., out of fallout range...
Instead Carter will have to deal with Mrs. Thatcher--dubbed the 'Iron Maiden' by the Soviets--who has been openly skeptical of the value of detente and a SALT II agreement. And though the Conservative commitment to increased NATO defense spending may please the Pentagon, a Tory Britain acting more Europe-conscious and less, as the French allege, "as a stalking-horse for American interests," may well be rated a minus by the State Department...
THIS CHAOTIC approach has plagued those outside the government as well. As the authors note, "What has been lacking is a coherent alternative to the unchanging stance of the Pentagon. Public concern with military matters has been confined to individual weapons or foreign bases or bizarre instances of waste. The B-1 bomber becomes a cause, while the cruise missile gets built. The neutron bomb grabs the public attention, while outmoded long-range bombers are deployed. "The broad links from major military forces to policy goals, on the one hand, and to alternative levels of military spending, on the other...